This isn’t quite the last First Doctor novel for me to read, in that I started (but could not bear to finish) The Plotters a couple of years back. But until the BBC decides to licence another First Doctor story, it is the last one whose covers I have cracked; a tale of Vicki, Ian and Barbara in China in the 1860s, encountering the Ten Tigers (of whom I had not previously heard, but a quick Google put me right) and an alien menace trying to take over Earth history through revenants and the terracotta soldiers. Lots of vivid imagery, and good imaginative backstory for Ian, Barbara and Vicki. I must just register a slight note of dissatisfaction that the baddie wasn’t obviously tied to Who continuity despite the clues (unless he actually was, and I missed the point). But otherwise this is one of the best First Doctor novels. Unfortunately I think I must now have another go at The Plotters for the sake of completism.

Next up in my reading of the BSFA nominees, and again I like this one more than the one I have already read; In By Light Alone, humanity has become universally able to photosynthesise enough energy to stay alive through their hair by virtue of a drug which is freely available, and has consequently collapsed into a Gatsbyesque dichotomy of the super-wealthy and the poor. The plot concerns a couple who are holidaying in an exotic resort, whose obscenely comfortable world is upended when one of their children is stolen – not kidnapped, no ransom involved; we then follow first their efforts to get her back and then the real story of her return. It’s lushly descriptive, but most of the characters are so unpleasant that it’s rather difficult to enjoy (and then the missing daughter is almost too heroic when she finally turns up).

Most reviewers have concentrated on Roberts’ commentary on wealth and gender, but I took something slightly different from it. By curious coincidence I have been reading this book on a trip to Tbilisi, which is the setting for a couple of scenes and the backdrop for several others. (I teased the author on Twitter about one geographical howler; the author replied that “it’s possible the borders have been redrawn a little, in my future-world”.) More to the point, Roberts’ future world is also a world without conflict, where his characters (both rich and poor) are able to wander across borders that in our world are tense and contentious but in the world of By Light Alone are sunk into a sullen peace, watched over by local militias and strongmen whose desire for a quiet life apparently doesn’t include conquering the next village. (Though the book ends with renewed conflict between rich and poor, personified in the family who are his core characters.)

Those of us who take an interest in the origins of conflict occasionally debate the extent to which access to resources is a universal factor (my own take is that it can be over-rated; cultural factors can exacerbate conflict even in areas which are wealthy, or prevent it in areas which are poor). Iain M. Banks portrays a post-scarcity future where conflict is pretty much absent except for those outside the Culture. I was a bit disappointed that the disappearance of traditional conflict from Roberts’ world wasn’t really a matter of comment within the novel; Tbilisi, Yerevan and Mount Ararat are basically far-off places which are not like New York and are full of poor people, and while that’s explicitly the view of the unpleasant rich characters, I felt it was implicitly the view of the novel as a whole, and an opportunity missed.

I’ve already quoted the Belgian line from this Eleventh Doctor novel, which is yet another story of car crashes and mixed-up timelines (I have lost count of how often this has come up in New Who but it’s at least twice on the main show plus Sarah Jane Smith’s parents), but with the excellent addition of the Weeping Angels, who both create the possibility of temporal paradox and hope to feed off it. Morris does a beautiful job of conveying the history of the relationship between the car crash victim and her husband which is central to the narrative, and the Angels also come across superbly – if Blink is one of your favourite DW episodes, as it is mine, this book comes close to being a novelisation of it in a slightly different frame. It’s more of a Weeping Angels novel than a Doctor Who novel – the original Blink of course was a Doctor-lite episode, and while I’ve seen a couple of reviews grumble that there’s not enough Doctor in this book I actually felt there could have been a little less. It’s a shame that the excellent quality of the writing was not entirely matched by originality of plot, but almost for that reason I think I could recommend this rather strongly as a Who book for non-fans. I listened to the audio version performed by Clare Corbett, of whom I increasingly feel that I would gladly pay a fee to hear her read the phone directory.

Fascinating to play with Gephi to get this lovely image of the network of my Facebook friends:

(Click to embiggen)

Apart from the two outliers of recent Cambridge sabbaticals and friends from the 1980s International Astronomical Youth Camps, it’s quite revealing of the gap between work and life, or business and pleasure. My Irish relatives are up at the top and my colleagues at my current employer (and my contacts in South Sudan) are as far away from them as possible.

Then there’s a very telling gulf between a) sf fandom, and my educational peers (note how my grammar school friends divide into two cliques, basically the large group on the left are those who I was not as close to as the smaller group on the right); and b) my professional/political contacts, with Ulster politics loosely connected to schoolfriends, and Lib Dems loosely connected to Cambridge friends. Then we gradually work through degrees of foreignness and personal history – NDI, who I worked for 1997-98; ICG and other Balkan contacts, reflecting my 1999-2006 work; and finally my current job. There are a few geographical concentrations there as well, South Sudan (as already mentioned), Banja Luka (where we lived in 1997-98), the Turkish Cypriots with whom I was closely engaged in 2007-10.

This doesn’t capture the full picture – there are obviously some nodes of connection between the various networks, and the links between fandom and the Lib Dems are more intense than appears here (as you would expect). But I’d better stop playing with it now, I am getting addicted…

I decided soon after moving to Belgium that the only reason to fly rather than take Eurostar to London would be to attend an event which was actually taking place at one of the airports. But as it happens, Olympus 2012, this year’s British national science fiction Easter convention, is taking place at the Heathrow Radisson. So I will fly from Brussels, possibly the first time I have ever done that route by plane other than to make onward flight connections.

Wiill you be there too?

A novel following an assortment of characters through their lives in New York over a period in August 1974, when they are linked by a fatal car accident and the experience of watching a man walk a tightrope strung between the towers of the World Trade Center. A New Yorker friend spotted this in my bag while we were in the pub, and expressed scepticism that any writer could properly capture his native city; I can’t judge that, but I did find it a satisfying and dramatic read, McCann capturing various voices to make an interesting story which is also fairly obviously an allegory for the impact of 9/11.

It was interesting to read this at the same time as both Lavie Tidhar’s alternative take on 9/11 and Van Wyck Brooks’ examination of New York culture in the early nineteenth century.

I noted recently that there were only two Sarah Jane audiobooks which I had not yet listened to, so went out and gt them; and then through some brainstorm actually loaded the MP3 player with one I had already heard rather than either of the new ones.

February Books 5) The Time Capsule, by Peter Anghelides

I noted in September 2009 that this is very enjoyable, marred by some uneven pacing, and I stand by that; I should also note that Anghelides is good at settings, be it a supermarket invaded by aliens or the Natural History Museum.

February Books 6) and 7) The Shadow People, by Scott Handcock; and The White Wolf, by Gary Russell

The two remaining books both had the same basic plot formula – Sarah Jane, Luke, Clyde and Rani go for an adventure in the countryside, in the first case because Sarah gets sucked into a school trip to Wales, in the second because the kids become involved with her journalistic investigations into a Dorset village. But they took the formula in interesting new directions, the shape-shifting aliens who are The Shadow People pushing for a deeper exploration of identity than is usual in this sort of literature, and the remnant spaceship survivors of The White Wolf undergoing a rather tragic process of closure to their story. Both stories also have pleasing continuity chrome, The Shadow People explicitly referring back to the Big Finish Sarah Jane audio Ghost Town and The White Wolf adding substantially to our knowledge of Aunt Lavinia. As with all the Sarah Jane audios, I strongly recommend them, and not just to fans. (No previous knowledge of Aunt Lavinia is required.)

Which takes me to the end of the whole set of ten Sarah Jane audiobooks. There isn’t a duff one in the list, frankly; I don’t think there is any other range of Who stories which made it into double figures without producing a clunker. I see that on LibraryThing I have given slightly higher marks to The Thirteenth Stone by Justin Richards, to Deadly Download by Jason Arnopp, and to Judgement Day by Scott Gray. (Apart from the three reviewed above, the remainder of the series are The Glittering Storm and The Ghost House by Stephen Cole, Wraith World by Cavan Scott and Children of Steel by Martin Day.) They are all well-written, well-read (all but the last two by Elisabeth Sladen), pleasing to fans and accessible for non-fans. If your routine allows for ebooks of about a CD’s length, you could do much, much worse than these.

An alternate history novel where the War on Terror never happened, but instead the history of our world is experience in a series of pulp novels about Osama Bin Laden; the plot concerns the central character’s quest for the author of these stories, which takes him on a long journey including a brief step into our timeline. So it’s basically The Man In The High Castle recast for today, though with lots of added literary allusions to the noir genre in particular. I wasn’t completely satisfied; like a lot of alternate history stories, this seems very pleased with its own cleverness (perhaps in a slightly different way to most of them), and I found the low-key ending a but unsatisfying after such a convoluted journey. But Tidhar does hold a mirror up to the history of our own times and get a rather interesting reflection. I like this more than the other BSFA nominee I have read but hope I like others even better.

This was also the first book I had read using Amazon Kindle software, thanks to a free giveaway – my normal ereader at present is Aldiko on my Android (which I basically use for ebooks, videos and Tweetdeck these days) and also still Mobipocket on my Blackberry (which I use for actual phone and email). I can see that the Kindle software has better bells and whistles than the other ereaders, but I instinctively distrust Amazon’s control of what I have downloaded, and doubt that I will pay for any Kindle books until it opens up.

“I recommend you stay as far away from your younger self as possible, just to be on the safe side,” said the Doctor. “Get out of the country if necessary. Belgium. I recommend Belgium. And I never thought I’d say that.”

Sitting at my desk, with newly purchased sushi box from supermarket in front of me; squeezing the wasabi paste out of its packet to mingle with the soy sauce…

Disaster! lump of wasabi splashes into soy sauce, liberally redistributing same in fragrant blobs all over the front of my shirt!

And I have a job interview at 2pm.

(I’m interviewing rather than being interviewed. But still.)

Sudden moment of inspiration – intern, on her lunch break, lives close to the office. Maybe I can borrow one of her boyfriend’s shirts? Make pleading phone call.

Dubious response from intern. Boyfriend is very small, she says. Please, I say. Not sure where his clean shirts are, she says. Not too worried as long as no visible soy and wasabi stains, I reply.

She turns up at same time as candidate, with shirt that appears clean and is suitable colour. I tell reception to ask candidate to wait while I try borrowed shirt. As predicted, it is too small and buttons fail to close round what was once my waist.

Return to my own shirt, attempt to disguise sauce stains by strategic deployment of tie and jacket, clutching candidate’s CV to my chest as I warmly greet him. It doesn’t work. Apologise for my disordered state while attempting to conduct interview with dues degree of professionalism. Nearly successful.

So how was your day?

This is very entertaining and witty account of the American literary scene in the first four decades of the nineteenth century, using Washington Irving’s life and career as a thread which unites a much broader discussion of American culture and other writers – I think there were as many chapters specifically about Poe as about Irving. There were a lot of things here I hadn’t thought about – how in 1800 Philadephia was at the heart of the new nation, rather than the smaller and dubiously Dutch-speaking New York; how service in the early US Navy was an intellectually broadening experience; how big an earthquake the 1828 election was; how closely linked the various writers were by bonds of blood and friendship. I must admit I haven’t read widely in this period – Davy Crockett, Poe, and failed attempts on The Scarlet Letter and The Last of the Mohicans and that’s it – but Brooks made me feel that I could profitably try a bit more.

I probably would not have bothered to acquire this had I not discovered, several years ago, that Van Wyck Brooks was my grandmother’s step-brother – his mother married my great-grandfather after both lost their first spouses and they lived in Plainfield, New Jersey. Brooks was thirteen years older than his little half-sister and they did not know each other particularly well (she did not get on with her stepmother and was packed off to Europe). Brooks didn’t like Plainfield either but remained on good terms with my grandmother, who in turne facilitated his biographers.

In Sarah Jane Adventures audiobook The Shadow People, by Scott Handcock, Sarah Jane briefly reminisces about the events of the Big Finish Sarah Jane Smith audio play Ghost Town, by Rupert Laight.

Are there any other examples of the New Who franchise (including Torchwood, SJA, books, audio books and radio plays) referencing incidents from Big Finish continuity?

0. Introduction

I am pleased to have an opportunity to respond to and critique the submissions to the Boundary Commission so far. The submission below should be read with and as a supplement to my previous submission to the Commission of 20 September 2011. While I stand by most of my original 20 September submission to the Commission, I have been persuaded of the merits of other proposals on the boundaries of Foyle (which has consequences for the boundaries of Glenshane and Mid Tyrone), and also of certain changes to the proposed boundaries of North Antrim, the two southern Belfast seats and Strangford. In summary, I recommend that:

1. The proposed constituencies of South Antrim and Mid Antrim should be divided east-west rather than north-south, resulting in an amended South Antrim centred on Antrim district and Ballymena town, and an amended East Antrim including all of Larne and Carrickfergus districts with most of Newtownabbey.
2. The proposed North Antrim constituency should not include Carnlough ward, but should include three more Coleraine wards.
3. The Fermanagh and South Tyrone constituency should include six more Dungannon wards rather than the six Omagh wards currently proposed.
4. The proposed Mid Tyrone constituency should include the six Omagh wards currently proposed for transfer to Fermanagh and South Tyrone rather than the six Dungannon wards in the Provisional Proposals; it should include the three Strabane wards currently proposed for transfer to Foyle; it should not include six Cookstown wards which should instead be moved to Glenshane.
5. The Foyle constituency should include the two Derry wards currently in East Londonderry, rather than the three Strabane wards proposed by the Commission.
6. The proposed Glenshane constituency should not include any Derry wards; three of the Coleraine wards proposed for inclusion in Glenshane should instead be included in the North Antrim constituency; six of the Omagh wards proposed for inclusion in Mid Tyrone should instead be included in Glenshane.
7. The ward of Loughbrickland should not be transferred from Upper Bann to South Down.
8. The ward of Killinchy should be transferred to South Down from Strangford.
9. The ward of Loughries should be split between Strangford and North Down.
10. There should, as the Commission’s Provisional Proposals recommend, be only three Belfast constituencies.
11. The Shaftesbury ward should be included in Belfast South East rather than Belfast South West.
12. The Stranmillis ward should be included in Belfast South West rather than Belfast South East.
13. The Upper Braniel ward should be included in Belfast South East rather than in Strangford.
14. The proposed North Antrim constituency should be renamed either “Causeway Coast” or “Coleraine and North Antrim”. The proposed Mid Tyrone constituency should be renamed “Mid Ulster”. The proposed Glenshane constituency should be renamed “Sperrin” or “The Sperrins”. The proposed Belfast South West constituency should be renamed “Belfast Black Mountain”. The proposed Belfast South East constituency should also be renamed.  Strangford should be renamed “Mid Down”.

However, I begin by suggesting two ways in which the Commission could make its own task easier (by liberal application of Rule 7 and by breaching ward boundaries).

1.1 Rule 7

The Boundary Commissions for England, Scotland and Wales are constrained (apart from certain islands) to propose constituencies with between 72,810 and 80,473 electors. The Boundary Commission for Northern Ireland has greater latitude. In my original submission I observed that the procedural threshold for invoking Rule 7, allowing the proposal of constituencies with between 70,583 and 72,810 electors, is so low that the Commission should effectively consider itself under no obligation to consider any question relating to constituency size, other than ensuring that a proposed constituency has more than 70,583 and fewer than 80,473 electors. This point was also made with varying degrees of force by the Democratic Unionist Party, the Alliance Party, Omagh District Council, Mr Auld and Ms Hoben in their submissions. The conditions attached to Rule 7 are not perceptibly different from those already at play under Rule 5, and the Commission should not hesitate to exploit the room for manoeuvre that Parliament has given it.

It could be argued that, if the current round of redistribution were to shape the core of Northern Ireland’s 16 constituencies for all future changes, it might be worthwhile to invest extra effort in ensuring that the variation from average size in the current Provisional Proposals is minimised, in order that future changes might also be minimised. However, this is not what the Commission’s legislative instructions say, and if it were to take this approach it would be misdirecting itself.

I was also struck by a point raised by the SDLP in their submission: it is quite likely that not just the boundaries but also the number of constituencies in Northern Ireland will again be changed at the next redistribution. This had not previously occurred to me, but it is obvious that some variation over time is inevitable, and I agree with the SDLP that it may happen sooner rather than later. Given the high probability that future redistributions will be for 15, 17 or 18 seats, the best thing for the Commission to do now is to propose constituencies which respect local ties and existing boundaries to the maximum extent possible, within the relatively less restrictive mathematical limits that it has been given; this is also, conveniently, precisely what Parliament has instructed it to do.

I do not agree with the criticisms of the Commission’s methodology made by Mr Hoben and Ms Hoben; they appear to have misread the intent and effect of the legislation. But the point they raise about transparency is important and could usefully be addressed in the Commission’s final report.

1.2 Ward boundaries

Before moving to specific geographical issues, there is one further procedural matter to discuss. I was struck by the reference in the submission made by the Blackstaff Community Development Association to the ward boundaries proposed by the Local Government Boundaries Commissioner before the RPA process was put on ice. As I argued in my previous submission, the Commission’s obligation to adhere to current ward boundaries is actually rather weak – Rule 5 states only that the Commission “may have regard” to them, and the Commission’s decision in principle not to split wards between constituencies “so far as practicable” is stronger than the letter of the legislation would justify. The Boundary Commissions for Wales and Scotland have breached the equivalent boundaries in their areas of responsibility several times (the Boundary Commission for England has, in my view incorrectly, taken a more restrictive approach).

Wards are of course a sufficiently small building block that it should not often be necessary to divide them between constituencies even while implementing the requirements of Rule 5 (as modified by Rule 7), and there are also not many other options available; but the historic townland boundaries (as in my previous proposal regarding Loughries) and the boundaries proposed after a painstaking consultation and review process by the Local Government Boundaries Commissioner are two such alternative sets of building blocks. Of course the current ward-breaching boundary between West Belfast and Lagan Valley, which the Commission’s proposals would (rightly) preserve, is another precedent.

2. Proposals relating to specific constituencies

2.1 South Antrim and Mid/East Antrim

Several submissions, like my own, disagreed firmly with the Commission’s proposal to create a Ballymena/Carrickfergus/Larne constituency (“Mid Antrim”) and an Antrim/Newtownabbey constituency (“South Antrim”). Alternative configurations to create an Antrim/Ballymena constituency and a Carrickfergus/Larne/Newtownabbey constituency were submitted by Mr Moriarty, Mr Quincey, Mr Connolly, Mr McWhinney and Mr Auld. (The DUP expressed their deep unhappiness with the Commission’s Provisional Proposals but did not make an alternative suggestion.) Having perused them all, I see no reason to change my mind either on the general principle of an east-west rather than north-south split, or on the specifics of the allocation of wards. I think my original submission maximises the preservation of local ties and minimises (though cannot completely avoid) the problem of constituency boundaries snaking through urban street blocks.

The suggested minor changes to the Commission’s proposals from the Alliance Party, the Ulster Unionist Party and Mr Fleming do little to fix the big problem with the Commission’s Provisional Proposals, which is the disruption of strong north-south ties for the benefit of weaker east-west ties.

2.2 Carnlough

I proposed in my first submission that Carnlough should be in the same constituency as the rest of Larne District, be that Mid Antrim or East Antrim. This was the entire substance of the submissions made by two elected representatives for the area, Mr McKeown and Mr McMullan, and also features in the submissions made by Mr McWhinney and Mr Moriarty. No submission strongly advocated the inclusion of Carnlough in North Antrim. No other single issue produced such a clear convergence of views among those submitting responses to the Commission’s Provisional Proposals. It is to be hoped that the Commission will decide accordingly.

2.3 Fermanagh and South Tyrone / Mid Tyrone (“Mid Ulster”)

I proposed in my submission that the six Omagh wards of Dromore, Drumquin, Fintona, Newtownsaville, Sixmilecross and Trillick should not, as in the Commission’ Provisional Proposals, be moved to Fermanagh and South Tyrone from West Tyrone, but that the six Dungannon wards of Altmore, Coalisland North, Coalisland South, Coalisland West and Newmills, Donaghmore and Washing Bay should instead be transferred to Fermanagh and South Tyrone from Mid Ulster. This is also the view of Omagh District Council (the only local government body which felt strongly enough about the Commission’s Provisional Proposals to make a submission), of the local branches of the SDLP, and of the Alliance Party.

It is surely clear that the division of Omagh District between constituencies is unnecessary, and the reunification of Dungannon and South Tyrone Dictrict inside a single constituency is feasible and desirable. A number of submissions (the DUP, the UUP, Mr Moriarty, Mr Auld and Mr McWhinney) propose that some wards from Omagh should still go into Fermanagh and South Tyrone and/or that some wards from Dungannon should not, but this fails to solve the central problem of the Commission’s Provisional Proposals, and in a couple of cases is driven by an over-restrictive and inaccurate interpretation of the Commission’s mathematical instructions.

2.4 The Glenshane / Mid Tyrone (“Mid Ulster”) boundary: Lissan and Coagh/Ardboe

The DUP propose that Coagh and Ardboe should be included in Glenshane, rather than in Mid Tyrone. Mr Moriarty proposes that only Coagh should be so included. Both proposals are bad for the urban core of Cookstown, which would be divided from its hinterland to the east.

My counter-proposal, that instead Lissan should be moved from Glenshane to Mid Ulster, in order not to separate Cookstown from its hinterland, finds support from Mr Murphy who is rather eerily on the same wavelength as me on this issue.

While I maintain that Lissan (and Coagh) should be in the same constituency as the five urban Cookstown wards, I have revisited this part of my proposals rather extensively, as explained in the next section.

2.5 Foyle / Glenshane / Mid Tyrone (“Mid Ulster”)

The DUP, the SDLP, the Alliance Party and Mr Auld all argue vigorously that Foyle should regain Claudy and Banagher, the two Derry wards which it lost at the last revision, rather than annexing the three Strabane wards proposed by the Commission. Although I supported the Commission’s Provisional Proposals here on first glance, I have been convinced by the counter-arguments. Claudy and Banagher are much more obviously linked to Derry than to Limavady, and are a more obvious fit for Foyle than are the fringes of Strabane. This would incidentally restore the boundaries of Foyle to those obtaining from 1995 to 2007.

If Foyle includes Claudy and Banagher, rather than the three Strabane wards of Slievekirk, Dunnamanagh and Artigarvan, it will have 72,573 electors, which is a hair under the 72,810 limit for the rest of the UK, but surely a clear case for the application of Rule 7, even for those who disagree with my liberal interpretation of it. No further wards need be included in Foyle.

But this would cause a serious problem with Glenshane, which would now lack the electorate which would have been supplied by the two Derry wards, and also with Mid Tyrone which would now have too many electors. The only block that can be moved with any (admittedly minuscule) degree of convenience between the two is the entire urban core of Cookstown – the five wards of Oldtown, Newbuildings, Tullagh, Gortalowry and Killymoon – and the neighbouring ward of Coagh, which I therefore recommend should be included in the Glenshane constituency rather than the Mid Tyrone constituency. I therefore also recommend, contra my previous submission but in line with the Commission’s Provisional Proposals, that the Lissan ward be part of the Glenshane constituency rather than Mid Tyrone.

The Mid Tyrone constituency would thus include the entirety of Strabane and Omagh districts, and the Cookstown wards of Dunnamore, Pomeroy, Oaklands, Sandholes, Stewartstown, Ardboe and Killycolpy; these last seven wards form a rather awkward salient from the west of County Tyrone to Lough Neagh, but there is no obvious alternative. I calculate the electorate of that seat at 73,010, which is within the required limits.

2.6 Glenshane / North Antrim

The boundaries proposed above would produce a Glenshane seat consisting of the whole of Limavady and Magherafelt districts, the Cookstown wards of Moneymore, The Loop, Lissan, Coagh, Oldtown, Newbuildings, Tullagh, Gortalowry and Killymoon, and the Coleraine wards of Agivey, Kilrea, Castlerock, Macosquin, Garvagh and Ringsend. While this would be within the acceptable limits at 77,033 electors, it would be preferable to reunite Coleraine with its hinterland by including the Coleraine wards of Macosquin, Agivey and Castlerock, which have a combined electorate of 5,551, in the proposed North Antrim constituency. This would bring Glenshane down to 71,482, which is within the Rule 7 limit; if either Agivey or Castlerock were retained in Glenshane, Rule 7 would not need to be invoked, but it seems clear that this is a good case for its use.

North Antrim, which as argued previously should lose the Carnlough ward, would then go up to 79,757 electors if the 5,551 from the three Coleraine wards are included; this is within the mathematical limit set by legislation.

2.7 Upper Bann / South Down / Strangford

I note that several submissions agreed with my proposal that Loughbrickland should be retained in Upper Bann rather than transferred to South Down.

I do not agree with the proposal made by the Democratic Unionist Party and others that Crossgar should be transferred to Strangford; I stand by my original proposal that Killyleagh, which should never have been separated from Downpatrick, should be restored to the South Down constituency.

2.8 Strangford / North Down

I stand by my original proposal that the Loughries ward should be divided between the Strangford and North Down constituencies, to better reflect the communication networks around Newtownards on the one hand and between Bangor and the Ards Peninsula on the other. By inference from the census returns I realise that I may have underestimated the number of voters in the eastern part of Loughries ward – it may be as many as 400 rather than the 200 I first thought – but this does not change the merits of the argument.

2.9 Belfast

I absorbed with great interest and some sympathy the numerous submissions from groups and individuals in South Belfast protesting the Commission’s proposed abolition of the seat. I grew up there myself and am well aware of its strong local identity. Unfortunately there does not appear to be a plausible alternative. The SDLP’s proposal demonstrated the difficulty of finding such an alternative, by sketching out a South Belfast seat whose eastern extremity is almost at Comber, whose southern extremity is just north of Saintfield and whose southwestern boundary would dance through the streets of Lisburn. If the SDLP’s proposals, or any better variation of them, were adopted, the South Belfast identity would be diluted anyway beyond recognition. It is better to accept that there are no longer sufficient numbers to preserve the constituency. It is worth noting that the legislative instruction to the Commission to take into account the potential inconvenience caused by its proposed changes explicitly (and rather cryptically) does not apply to this Review.

However, I am convinced by the arguments from Sinn Féin, An Droichead, Mr Moriarty and Mr McWhinney that the Shaftesbury ward should be part of the new South East Belfast and the Stranmillis ward part of the new South West Belfast rather than vice versa. Local ties in such a densely populated urban environment will end up being brutally violated in this process anyway, but the proposed swap would reduce (though certainly not remove) the consequent disruption. I do not go as far as the DUP’s proposal to draw the boundary along the Lagan.

I also find compelling the arguments from Mr Moriarty, Mr McWhinney and the DUP that Upper Braniel should be included in South East Belfast, though it also seems to me that there may be a case for splitting the ward along the line of the Middle Braniel Road (and the Upper Braniel Road between the Middle Braniel Road and its junction with the Ballygowan Road at the ward boundary), the northern part joining Belfast South West and the southern part Strangford, though the number of electors in the southern part must be very small.

I am not as convinced by Mr McWhinney’s suggestion that this constituency should also include Cairnshill and Knockbracken, and still less by the DUP’s proposal to include Minnowburn and Beechhill, which are actually more distant from Belfast than may appear on the map. The boundaries between the Belfast seats, however many there may be, and the neighbouring constituencies will always be unsatisfactory anyway, given the pattern of settlement, and the knock-on effects of any serious expansion of the Belfast seats for Strangford and other constituencies become increasingly difficult to resolve.
 
I do not support any of the alternative proposals for the boundary between North Belfast and the Antrim seats variously submitted by the SDLP, Croí Éanna and Mr Auld. None of them can avoid the problem of boundaries looping through the streets of Newtownabbey, and the Commission’s original proposals, modified by my suggested configuration of the Antrim seats, seem to me preferable in terms of keeping decent internal communication in North Belfast.

I therefore propose that South West Belfast, with Stranmillis rather than Shaftesbury, would have 74,408 electors; South East Belfast, with Shaftesbury and Upper Braniel but not Stranmillis, would have 74,394 electors; and Strangford, without Upper Braniel at one end and without Killyleagh at the other, would have 71,482 electors, possibly closer to 71,000 if my proposal to divide Loughries is adopted. These boundaries for Strangford would mean invoking Rule 7, but as I have repeatedly argued, the Commission should be ready to do so.

3. Names

Finally, it is impossible to ignore the fact that the question of constituency names is a recurrent theme among the submissions to the Boundary Commission. Given my changed views on the Mid Tyrone and Glenshane constituencies, I no longer feel as strongly as I did that Mid Tyrone should be redesignated as “Mid Ulster”. But I find Mr Auld’s suggestion that the proposed Glenshane should instead be designated “Sperrin” (or, I might suggest, “The Sperrins”) very attractive; and his proposal that Strangford should be renamed “Mid Down” should have been adopted when that constituency was first created in 1983.

While the submissions from aggrieved residents of South Belfast have understandably concentrated on their own loss of a parliamentary identity under the Commission’s Provisional Proposals, it should be noted also that the impact on West Belfast is not insignificant; the Shankill Road, traditionally part of West Belfast, is now completely removed from it. The proposed Belfast South West should be given a more geographically neutral name: “Belfast Black Mountain” is appropriate, given that every house in the area has a good view of that geographical feature. A similar name should be identified for Belfast South East.
As noted in my original submission, the name North Antrim is simply not an accurate description of the Commission’s proposed constituency. “Coleraine and North Antrim”, or “Causeway Coast”, are acceptable alternatives.

4. Conclusion

It is clear that the dozens of responses received to the Provisional Proposals indicate a certain level of engagement in the Commission’s activities. The Commission has demonstrated a commitment to transparency, including in my own personal interactions with its staff, which is commendable. However, the Boundary Commission for Scotland was able to go a step further by including Excel spreadsheets and a mapping application on its website; perhaps this will be possible also next time in Northern Ireland (especially as the next redistribution will come all too soon).

The constraints imposed on the Commission by Parliament are certain to lead to dissatisfaction; the tight mathematical limits set on the Commission’s work, and the fact that the Commission is cutting the number of territorial parliamentary seats in Northern Ireland for the first time since 1922, put it in a more invidious situation than was the case in 1949, 1970, 1983, 1995 or 2007. While it may not be regular practice for the Commission to comment on its own terms of reference, the circumstances are so unusual that it would be appropriate for the Commission’s final report to find some expression of sympathy for those whose efforts to serve their communities are inevitably going to be set back by the new scheme of things, no matter how well designed it may be.

Nicholas Whyte
5 February 2012

I didn’t know much about this book before I started it, though I vaguely know one of the author’s brothers, an expert on the South Caucasus, and know of another, who is an expert on Sudan. It’s quite a remarkable story, tracking the history of the Ephrussi family through the fate of a collection of netsuke, including the hare of the title, from France to Austria and back to Japan. The two particularly impressive sections are on the life of the collection’s first owner, Charles Ephrussi, who turns up in Renoir paintings and was one of the people that Proust’s Charles Swann was based on, and the heart-wrenching story of the destruction of the family household in Vienna after the Nazi take-over, including the chance survival of the netsuke collection when almost all else was lost. But there are also sections covering the life of the author’s great-uncle in Japan and how de Waal put the story together in the first place. It’s all beautifully written, and de Waal successfully recreates the atmosphere of these lost worlds for the reader.

First of the BSFA nominees for me to read. Lots of intense description of the Circus inmates and their enemies, and some very sensual sex, but I found it quite difficult to follow what was actually going on. I actually found Black Sunday, the companion novella set in Dustbowl Texas, much more approachable and liked it more. I will certainly look out for more from Lakin-Smith in future, though I will be surprised if I rank this top of my BSFA ballot.

Inspired by 's question about women writing for Doctor Who on TV, I have spent the weekend looking at the snow outside and assembling this definitive (though no doubt incomplete and imperfect) list.

The TV Whoniverse

Doctor Who 1963-89
Lesley Scott – The Ark (1966) with Paul Erickson – though received wisdom is that she did not in fact write any of it.
Barbara Clegg – Enlightenment (1983) – one of two sole and undisputed credits for women writers in Old Who
Paula Moore – Attack of the Cybermen (1985) – extent of Moore's authorship hotly disputed (her real name is Paula Woolsey).
Jane Baker – The Mark of the Rani (1985), Terror of the Vervoids (1986), The Ultimate Foe Episode 14 only (1986), Time and the Rani (1987) all with Pip Baker
Rona Munro – Survival (1989) – the second sole and undisputed credit for a women writer in Old Who

Doctor Who 2005-
Helen Raynor – Daleks of Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks (2007), The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky (2008).

Sarah Jane Adventures
No credited women writers.

Torchwood
Helen Raynor – Ghost Machine (2006), To The Last Man (2008)
Jacquetta May – Random Shoes (2006)
Catherine Tregenna – Out of Time (2006), Captain Jack Harkness (2007), Meat (2008), Adam (2008)
Doris Egan – Miracle Day: Rendition (2011)
Jane Espenson – Miracle Day: Dead of Night, The Categories of Life, Immortal Sins, (with Ryan Scott) End of the Road, (with Russell T. Davies) The Blood Line (all 2011)

K9
Deborah Parsons – The Sirens of Ceres, Oroborus and The Lost Library of Ukko (all 2009)

TV Spinoffs
The girls of Oakley Junior School – Death is the Only Answer (2011), with the boys of Oakley Junior School.
Jane Espenson – Torchwood: Web of Lies (2011) – animated story

Books

Target Novelisations
Barbara Clegg – Doctor Who: Enlightenment (1984)
Jane Baker – Doctor Who: The Mark of the Rani (1986), Doctor Who: Terror of the Vervoids (1988), Doctor Who: Time and the Rani (1988), Doctor Who: The Ultimate Foe (1988) all with Pip Baker
Alison Bingemann – Doctor Who: The Celestial Toymaker (1986) – credited as co-writer with Gerry Davis though in this case the lore is that Bingemann did most of the writing
Rona Munro – Doctor Who: Survival (1990)

Virgin New Adventures
Kate Orman – The Left-Handed Hummingbird (1993), Set Piece (1995), SLEEPY (1996), Return of the Living Dad (1996), The Room With No Doors (1997), So Vile A Sin (1997) – last of these co-written with Ben Aaronovitch

Virgin Missing Adventures
None

Eighth Doctor Adventures
Kate Orman – Vampire Science (1997), Seeing I (1998), Unnatural History (1999), The Year of Intelligent Tigers (2001) – first three of these co-written with Jonathan Blum
Natalie Dallaire – Parallel 59 (2000) with Stephen Cole
Jacqueline Rayner – EarthWorld (2001)
Lloyd Rose – The City of the Dead (2001), Camera Obscura (2002)
Kelly Hale – Grimm Reality (2002) with Simon Bucher-Jones
Mags L Halliday – History 101 (2002)

Past Doctor Adventures
Kate Orman – Blue Box (2003)
Jacqueline Rayner – Wolfsbane (2003)
Lloyd Rose – The Algebra of Ice (2004)

New Series Adventures
Jacqueline Rayner – Winner Takes All (2005), The Stone Rose (2006), The Last Dodo (2007), The Sontaran Games (2009), The Darksmith Legacy: The Picture of Emptiness (2009), Magic of the Angels (2012), The Water Thief (2012)
Una McCormack – The King's Dragon (2010), The Way Through the Woods (2011)
Naomi Alderman – Borrowed Time (2011)
J.T. Colgan (better known as chick-lit author Jenny Colgan) – Dark Horizons (due later 2012)

Telos novellas
Louise Cooper – Rip Tide (2003)
Kate Orman – Fallen Gods (2003) with Jonathan Blum

Bernice Summerfield novels
Kate Orman – Walking to Babylon (1998)
Rebecca Levene – Where Angels Fear (1998) with Simon Winstone
Jacqueline Rayner – The Squire's Crystal (2001), The Glass Prison (2001)
Xanna Eve Chown – Legion (coming in 2012)

Torchwood novels
Sarah Pinborough – Into the Silence (2009), Long Time Dead (2011)

Faction Paradox novels
Mags L. Halliday – Warring States (2005)
Kelly Hale – Erasing Sherlock (2006)

Erimem novel
Claire Bartlett – The Coming of the Queen (2005) with Iain McLaughlin

Short stories

Karen Dunn – "An Unfulfilled Dream" (in DWM 178, 1991)
Kate Orman – "The Useful Pile" (in DWM 188, 1992); "One Minute Fourteen Seconds" (in DWM 206, 1993); "No Exit" (in Short Trips: Steel Skies, 2003); "The Southwell Park Mermaid" (in Short Trips: Life Science, 2004); "Culture War" (in Short Trips: 2040, 2004); "Nobody's Gift" (in Short Trips: The History of Christmas, 2005); "White on White" (in Short Trips: Christmas Around The World, 2008)
Vanessa Bishop – "A Visit to the Cinema" (in DWM 190, 1992); "Playtime" (in 1992 DWM Holiday SpecialDecalog, 1994); "Time Share" (in Decalog 2: Lost Property, 1995); "The Feast of Seven… Eight (and Nine)" (in Short Trips: A Christmas Treasury, 2004)
Una McCormack – "A Time & a Place" aka "Time and Time Again" (in DWM 197, 1993); "The Slave War" (in Short Trips: The Quality of Leadership, 2008)
Pam Baddeley – "People of the Trees" (in Decalog 2: Lost Property, 1995)
Jackie Marshall – "Past Reckoning" (in Decalog 3: Consequences, 1996); "Lily" (in Short Trips: A Christmas Treasury, 2004)
Rebecca Levene – "The Last Days" (as Evan Pritchard in Short Trips, 1998); "Cold War" (in Short Trips: Steel Skies, 2003); "Anteus" (in Short Trips: 2040, 2004); "Too Rich for My Blood" (in Short Trips: Seven Deadly Sins, 2005); "No Room" (in Short Trips: Christmas Around The World, 2008)
?Sam Lester – "There Are Fairies At The Bottom Of The Garden" (in Short Trips, 1998)
Harriet Green – "Planet of the Bunnoids" (in Short Trips and Side Steps, 2000)
Sarah Groenewegen – "Virgin Lands" (in Short Trips: Zodiac, 2002); "Hymn of the City" (in Short Trips: The Muses, 2003); "The Bushranger's Story" (in Short Trips: Repercussions, 2004)
Alison Lawson – "The Stabber" (in Short Trips: Zodiac, 2002); "A Long Night" (in Short Trips: Companions, 2003); "Far from Home" (in Short Trips: Past Tense, 2004); "Saturn" (in Short Trips: The Solar System, 2005)
Juliet E. McKenna – "Losing Track of Time" (in Short Trips: A Universe of Terrors, 2003)
Claire Bartlett – "Graham Dilley Saves the World" (with Iain McLaughlin, in Short Trips: Past Tense, 2004); "The Time Lord's Story" (with Iain McLaughlin, in Short Trips: Repercussions, 2004)
Kathryn Sullivan – "The Diplomat's Story" (in Short Trips: Repercussions, 2004)
Samantha Baker – "Fixing A Hole" (in Short Trips: Past Tense, 2004); "These Things Take Time" (in Short Trips: Monsters, 2004); "Be Good For Goodness's Sake" (in Short Trips: The History of Christmas, 2005); "Childhood Living" (in Short Trips: The Centenarian, 2005)
Jacqueline Rayner – "Screamager" (in Short Trips: Monsters, 2004); "The Last Emperor" (in Short Trips: 2040, 2004); linking material (in Short Trips: Seven Deadly Sins, 2005)
Xanna Eve Chown – "Daisy Chain" (in Short Trips: 2040, 2004); "A Life in the Day" (in Short Trips: A Day in the Life, 2005); "Saint Nicholas's Bones" (in Short Trips: The History of Christmas, 2005); "Do You Believe in the Krampus?" (in Short Trips: The Ghosts of Christmas, 2007); "One Card For The Curious" (in Short Trips: Defining Patterns, 2008)
?Val Douglas – "In the TARDIS: Christmas Day" (in Short Trips: A Christmas Treasury, 2004)
Karen Dunn – "UNIT Christmas Parties: Ships That Pass" (in Short Trips: A Christmas Treasury, 2004)
Alison Jacobs – "One Wednesday Afternoon" (in Short Trips: A Day in the Life, 2005)
Lizzie Hopley – "First Born" (in Short Trips: The Centenarian, 2005)' "Golem" (in Short Trips: Snapshots, 2007); "Stanley" (in Short Trips: Defining Patterns, 2008)
Mary Robinette Kowal – "Suspension and Disbelief" (in Short Trips: Destination Prague, 2007)
Lucy A. Snyder – "Fable Fusion" (with Gary A. Braunbeck, in Short Trips: Destination Prague, 2007)
Helen Raynor – "All of Beyond" (in Short Trips: Snapshots, 2007)
Ann Kelly – "The Cutty Wren" (in Short Trips: The Ghosts of Christmas, 2007)
Diane Duane – "Goths and Robbers" (in Short Trips: The Quality of Leadership, 2008)
Terri Osborne – "Good Queen, Bad Queen, I Queen, You Queen" (in Short Trips: The Quality of Leadership, 2008)
Linnea Dodson – "God Send Me Well to Keep" (in Short Trips: The Quality of Leadership, 2008)
Kathleen O. David – "On a Pedestal" (in Short Trips: The Quality of Leadership, 2008)
Mags L. Halliday – "Gudok" (in Short Trips: Transmissions, 2008)
Kelly Hale – "Nettles" (in Short Trips: Transmissions, 2008)
L.M. Myles – "Child's Play" (in Short Trips: How The Doctor Changed My Life, 2008)
Violet Addison – "Those Left Behind" (in Short Trips: How The Doctor Changed My Life, 2008)
Anna Bratton – "Lares Domestici" (in Short Trips: How The Doctor Changed My Life, 2008)
Lisa Miles – "A Visit from Saint Nicholas" (in Short Trips: Christmas Around The World, 2008)
?J.J. Secker – "The Doctor's Cross Word" (in Short Trips: Christmas Around The World, 2008)
Beverley Allen – Autaia Pipipi Pia (in Short Trips: Christmas Around The World, 2008)